Days of the Marauders
Part 2
James and Sirius moved quickly under the cloak. There were was no one left on the grounds and no point in trying to keep quiet. They only needed to make sure no one saw them if they were to look out one of the castle's windows. Neither of them spoke, both to excited at the aspect of another night's adventure. The only sound other than their footsteps on the grass was the squeaking of Wormtail in Sirius' pocket. Sirius turned his head to look up at the castle as they moved. He spoke in the same unneeded whisper.
"Where are they?" he asked, "They're usually out by now."
"I'm not sure." James said, "Maybe, Pomfrey got held up."
"Or maybe-"
But Sirius stopped speaking when he saw two new figures appear in the doorway, silhouetted in the light coming from the Great Hall. A boy their age looking very sick and disheveled and an older woman looking severe and annoyed.
"There they are." Sirius said, not whispering anymore, "Moony doesn't look like he's enjoying himself."
"He told me that the potion Pomfrey gives him gave him an upset stomach." James replied watching Madam Pomfrey telling the Slytherin seventh year off and ordering him back into the castle.
Moony and Pomfrey moved onto the grounds and headed for the same tree James and Sirius were moving closer to so quickly. Pomfrey's face was angry and annoyed. It was not unusual to see her annoyed but there was something clearly upsetting her now. Moony, on the other hand, looked weak and sick. He could barely keep up with the quick strides of Madam Pomfrey who seemed to be determined to reach the tree quickly.
"We should probably get there before they do, this time." James said.
"Yeah." Sirius replied, "Pomfrey stood guard there a full 30 minutes before walking away last time."
James and Sirius quickened their pace to almost a run, Wormtail squeaking loudly in Sirius' pocket. James stared up at the sky again. The sun had almost completely set, the time would soon be upon them. Pomfrey was really cutting it close tonight. It wasn't like her to be late. What could have been holding her up in the hospital wing? James and Sirius reached the large tree and stood in the shadow it cast in the setting sun. Both James and Sirius looked at it for a moment and made sure to keep a safe distance. James looked over his shoulder and saw, to his relief, that Pomfrey had stopped moving and was now standing over Moony, who seemed to have stopped to catch his breath or to vomit, James couldn't tell.
"Alright, Wormtail." Sirius said, reaching into his pocket and pulling the fat, black rat out, "Get moving. And fast."
With a loud squeak of understanding, Wormtail leapt from Sirius' hand and landed on the ground. He ran underneath the cloak and darted straight for the trunk of the tree. Immediately, the branches of the tree sprang to life. A large branch came crashing down to where Wormtail was running, but he was ready. Wormtail flipped his small body over and rolled out of the way. Regaining himself, he got to his four feet and continued his dash to the trunk. The tree threw another branch at him but missed. Three more branches came flying at the black rat but they all missed. The tree was having trouble hitting something so small. Wormtail finally reach his goal just as he jumped left to avoid another falling branch. He leapt up onto the side of the tree's trunk. He used his claws and dug into the tree's side, climbing up it a little ways until he found a large knot. He lifted one of his small paws off the tree's side and place it on the knot and pushed. The tree froze, immediately. Not a branch or a leaf moved at all.
"Excellent." said James.
"Not a moment to soon, either." said Sirius looking over his shoulder. Pomfrey and Moony were only a few yards away.
James and Sirius ran forward with the cloak draped safely over them, ducking around the branches held low in mid attack. They stopped at the trunk and found an opening between the roots. Making sure not to let the cloak slip off, the two dropped into it quietly. James and Sirius landed in a dark under-ground passage illuminated slightly by the dieing light pouring in from the opening. James turned around and looked back up through the it.
"Ok, Wormtail!" he called up quietly.
The fat black rat fell down into the opening and landed with a dull thud at James' feet. Suddenly, the rat was gone and the human form of Wormtail stood before James again.
"Good work." James said clapping Wormtail in the back.
"Lets go." Sirius said, drawing his wand, "Lumos!"
A light sprang to life at the end of Sirius' wand which he pointed down the dark passage. James and Wormtail did the same and suddenly, the passage was filled with the light from the three wands. Sirius began running down the passage, Wormtail followed eagerly. James toke one more look up through the opening and saw the branches of the tree flailing again. Pomfrey must have reach the tree and was now attempting to stop it. A grin ran across James's as he turned and ran after Sirius and Wormtail, wand held out to illuminate the path.
"We finally got our timing right, I think." James said catching up to his two friends.
"Yeah." Sirius replied, "Anything's better than the first time."
"Yeah," said James, remembering their first time they did this. They hadn't planned ahead very much. They had still been waiting in the dormitory before Pomfrey had taken Moony to the tree. Then, things got worse when they were almost discovered by the caretaker in the corridors on the way down. It had been a full 3 hours before they were able to join Moony. Then, on their second time, they hadn't planned on Pomfrey standing guard at the tree for a while before going back to the castle. They had had to wait under the cloak till she left before going down the passage. This time, though, they had planned ahead. They would be in the house before Moony got there to ensure optimum amounts of time to enjoy themselves. These nights were far to short for all four of them.
"So," said Wormtail, speaking up, "why was Pomfrey so late?"
"Don't know." James answered, "But it must be something big."
"Yeah," said Sirius, "ol' Pomfrey's never been late before."
"What would have held her up?" James asked, thinking hard.
"Maybe someone put Skelo-Grow in the bottles of cough potion again." Wormtail said, laughing.
"That someone was me." James said with a grin, looking at Wormtail. Wormtail returned a look of admiration.
"Snape." said Sirius quietly. He stop running and stood still in the middle of the passage, thinking. James and Wormtail stopped running and looked back at him. Sirius was lost in thought. James and Wormtail looked at each other. James knew what was coming, it had happened so many times before. Sirius was about to go on another rant about Snivilus Snape. Sirius had never liked Snape and nor had James. It was common Hogwarts knowledge that James and Snape loathed each other. They never missed a chance to trade insults or, if they could, spells. Most of the teachers knew never to let them sit close to each other for fear a duel would erupt. Neither seemed to be even slightly effected by punishment, either. But, James' hate of Snape was nothing more than a rivalry between them. James hated Snape for no reason other than that Snape was dirt in his eyes. Snape, it was assumed, hated James out of jealously. And that was all there was between them. Sirius, on the other hand, had always thought of Snivilus as the cause of all trouble. Sirius's spite for that greasy haired creep was so large that he would place him at the center of any problem. If something of his went missing, Sirius would somehow (and it was quite a mystery to James how exactly) he would find a way to blame it on Snape.
"What about Snivilus?" James asked, apprehensively.
"Didn't Wormtail say that McGonagall was telling Snape off for snooping around the hospital wing?" Sirius said.
"Yeah." James said, comprehension dawning. "Yeah, that's right."
James whirled around to face Wormtail. "What was Snape doing in the hospital wing? Did McGonagall say?" he asked loudly.
"No." Wormtail replied, quickly, "I didn't hear Snape say anything. All I herd was McGonagall shouting about being where he wasn't supposed to be. I was in to much of a hurry to get down here."
"Oh come on, Wormtail!" said James loudly so it echoed in the passage. "You should have stayed to find out what! That's the kind of thing you need to spy on!"
"Yeah, haven't we taught you anything?" Sirius said just as loudly as James.
"Sorry!" Wormtail squealed in an alarming rat-like fashion, "I had no idea!"
"Snape. He must have been spying on Moony! He must've!" roared Sirius.
"That slime ball." James said with hate vibrating in his voice, his fist clenched so tight, they turned red.
"Then Pomfrey found him and got distracted from her duties with Moony to shout at him. That's why she was late." Sirius finished.
"Well," Wormtail said slowly trying to make sure it was OK for him to speak again. "What are we gonna do about it?"
"We're gonna teach that slug a lesson!" bellowed Sirius, "That's what we're gonna do! We'll make him pay for trying to stick his big nose in our business."
"Yeah." James replied walking forward and giving Sirius a high-five, "No little grease sack messed with us!"
"That's right!" shouted Wormtail who only seemed to pitch in to remind the other two he was there.
"Hope I'm not interrupting." said a weak voice from the darkness of the corridor, "but the moon is coming up."
James, Sirius, and Wormtail all jumped. James regained his composure first, lifted his lit wand and pointed it into the darkness. His wand illuminated a face as pale as a ghost. The sick boy walked forward slowly and with difficulty.
"Moony!" shouted Sirius, "You made it! We were gonna' meet you at the house but- Moony?"
"Remus, are you alright?" asked James, concerned.
Remus walked forward to his friends and grunted, weakly. He was grabbing his stomach as if it was causing him great pain. His robes were covered in more dirt than usual, as if he'd fallen a few times on his way down. And, sure enough, he fell to his knees at James' feet. The three friends gathered around him as he sat on the ground, doubled over in pain.
"Remus," James said, worried, "are you OK?"
"Obviously," Remus replied, weakly "I'm not. The pain killer potion Madam Pomfrey usually gives me before hand gives me pains in my stomach but these are extreme. Stronger than usual."
"Maybe it was a bad potion." Wormtail chipped in.
"Or maybe she did it wrong." James said, thinking.
"Or maybe," Sirius added, "Snape actually snuck in and-"
"No," Remus interrupted, speaking as if every word caused him a little pain, "I think James is right. In the middle of preparing the potion, there was a crash in the back room. Madam Pomfrey walked away to investigate. I herd her screaming at someone and she didn't come back to finished working on the potion. Then I herd McGonagall shouting too. A little while later, Pomfrey returned and she was upset but didn't say why. She gave me the potion not thinking that maybe she had let it sit to long. She was really mad."
"Tainted potion." James said, "Snape. That pile of rat droppings!"
"Hey!" Wormtail squealed.
"Oh, sorry, Wormtail." James said, quickly.
"If he hadn't been trying to spy," Sirius said, his angry growing, "Pomfrey wouldn't have been distracted and wouldn't have-"
"I'm sure," Remus interrupted again, his voice fading in the pain, "that I would love to hear your thoughts on the situation but the moon has almost risen."
"Oh, right." Sirius said, his anger fading.
"Can you walk?" asked James.
"I'm sure," Remus said, "that the pain will subside once I transform but I feel we should be in the house when that happens."
"Right." said James, grabbing Remus' arm and hoisting him into his feet, "OK, Sirius, grab his other arm and we'll carry him the rest of the way. Wormtail, you lead and light the path."